So far, a good 1,000 take-offs and landings with around 137,000 passengers have been planned for Friday at Germany’s largest airport.
(Photo: dpa)
Frankfurt After the strike announced by the Verdi union, the airports in Frankfurt, Munich, Hamburg and Stuttgart will cease regular passenger operations on Friday. The airports announced this on Wednesday evening.
Regular operations in Frankfurt will not be possible on Friday because of the warning strike, said a spokeswoman for the Fraport operating company. Emergency flights are excluded.
At the Frankfurt hub, 1005 flight movements were planned for Friday, the Fraport spokeswoman said. The operating company spoke of 137,000 affected passengers. She called on passengers not to come to the airport in the first place and to get information from their airline.
Munich, Hamburg and Stuttgart airports had also announced that they would suspend regular passenger operations on Friday. According to the airport, 162 flights and around 20,000 passengers are affected by the warning strike in Stuttgart. Munich Airport spoke of more than 700 affected take-offs and landings, according to an airport spokeswoman, around 32,000 passengers are affected in Hamburg.
Lufthansa alone canceled around 1,200 flights at Frankfurt and Munich airports as of Wednesday evening, as a Lufthansa spokesman for the dpa news agency said. The number will increase, since not only these two airports are affected by the warning strike. Customers would be informed.
In view of the warning strike, the airport association ADV expects 2,340 cancellations in domestic and international air traffic. “The fact that more than 295,000 air travelers suffered from the conflict on Friday is not reasonable. Solutions must be found at the negotiating table and not on the backs of the passengers,” said Ralph Beisel, General Manager of the ADV. The passengers would become a pawn in the Verdi strike tactics. Verdi is completely overstepping the mark, said the President of the aviation lobby BDL, Jost Lammers.
Unions are demanding 10.5 percent more income
The Verdi union had called for all-day warning strikes at seven German airports on Friday. With the work stoppages in Munich, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Dortmund, Hanover and Bremen, Verdi wants to increase the pressure in the wage dispute in the public sector. This was announced by deputy Verdi chairwoman Christine Behle in the Handelsblatt. The warning strike is scheduled to begin early Friday morning and end on Saturday night.
In addition to the public service, there are local negotiations for ground handling services and a nationwide round of collective bargaining for aviation security. Aid deliveries to the earthquake victims in Turkey and Syria should be exempt from the warning strike.
In the negotiations, Verdi and the civil servants’ association DBB are demanding 10.5 percent more income, but at least 500 euros more for the approximately 2.5 million employees. The term should be twelve months. The employers have rejected the claims. The second round of negotiations is scheduled for February 22nd and 23rd in Potsdam.
Already on Wednesday there were delays and cancellations for tens of thousands of passengers with connections via the Frankfurt hub. A cable damage on a Frankfurt S-Bahn line had led to a failure of the computer systems at Lufthansa. At the Frankfurt hub, 242 of around 1,000 planned flights were canceled by the early evening. Passengers were asked to transfer to the train.
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